Unlikely Allies
by Leonidas 82
Summary: A squad of Marines and a platoon of Covenant find themselves fighting side by side as a new and even dealier menace threatens their survival. rnrnPlease R&R welcome. This is my first fic so please keep critism constructive and flames to yourself.
1. Default Chapter

**Unlikely Allies: Chapter One**

**-by Leonidas 82**

September 3rd, 2551 (Military Calender)

Planet: Centauri Seven

1800 Hours

Twenty minutes into this mission, and everything that could have gone wrong, did. As soon as Fire Team Zulu landed and leaped out of the Pelican, the Sarge had taken a plasma burst too the chest. As they struggled to get him too cover, the dropship took a plasma mortar from an enemy Wraith and exploded. They stumbled through the marshes carrying their moaning sergeant with them. Thirty seconds of wadding through knee deep water they found cover under a large mossy tree. When they put the Sarge down and examined his wounds they found that he was already dead. That left Corpral Wallace in charge.

"What the hell are we gonna do now, sir?!" asked Private Jenson, in tense and stressed voice.

"We finish the mission as planned!" replied Wallace through gritted teeth.

The rest of the squad wold have said something, but they were cut short by more plasma mortars firing over their heads and exploding about forty feet from them. "Move!" shouted Wallace. The remaining eleven marines pushed north-east, moving away from the Wraith, and whatever ground support it had, and truddged through the murky and foul smelling swamp, towards their objective. Despite all the training these men had seemed there was always something new the Covenant could throw at them, that Basic hadn't prepped them for.

As they moved towards the swamps edge, Wallace called for the squad to halt, and reviewed the mission specs that ONI had prepared for them. The data scrolled across the green recticle infront of his right eye. It read:

Objective 1: Proceed from the LZ toward Bravo Company's base, twenty miles north-east of the LZ.

Objective 2: Ascertain Bravo Company's status and report back to UNSC command.

Objective 3: Ensure Bravo Copamny's CO survives for extraction at any cost.

Wallace stood and surveyed his men."Alright ladies you've had enough R and R. Let move out. Jenson you got point!" The men stood and strecthed and got into formation and began marching again Jenson grumbled as he once again got stuck on point.

The squad moved from the swamps edge into a dense wood that seemed to be closely packed. They pushed forward through the trees snapping braches and rustling leaves as they marched. All around them, the forest came alive with a still yet disturbing silence that only a horror writer would find comforting.

Each man kept a tight grip on his rifle and scanned the area. A fog rolled in as if on cue, and began to effect visibility. Each marine could see the man in front of them, which made the line formation both effective yet weak, as each was vulnrable to attck from the flanks.

An hour of marching passed without incident as the fog maintained it's density without any sign of lifting. The nerves of the squad seemed too ease a little ,but Wallace couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched. Evening was coming fast as they reached a small clearing. As the sun began to set Wallace called for a halt "Marines. Pull out your tents. We camp here tonight."

Private Marshall spoke up. "But sir. Are you sure we shouldn't press on?"

"No Marshall. We need at least one good rest cycle. Besides the Covenant aren't in the habit of night attacks. Best time to let our guard down is when they arer least likely to attack. I'll take the first watch. Marshall you'll take the second. Jenson you'll take the third." Wallace spoke without pause."Get you rest ladies. We move out at 0400."

The tents were quickly brouht out and setup as the sun finally disappeared compleately and the fog got even thickeer.

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Yigsa Solamee'e sighed as his solders marched forward. This was another dead end assignment that wouldn't take his career forward at all. He was an Elite and his main desire was to lead an army of Elites in battle. An army of his kind. Here he was though, leading an assortment of twenty Grunts, and fifteen Jackals. The lesser races were completely unworthy of his respect, snd even less worthy of his contempt.

The Covenant force marched briskly as they headed south-west along a rolling stream, that cut a path through the foothills of the mountains they had been dropped into. They had met little resistence in their landing and now absolutely none as they made their way out of the mountains and into the hills. This was the one bright spot in Yigsa's mission so far. He had the element of surprise.

Dak, one of the Jackals, came running past the front of the column, towards Yigsa, holding his energy shield in front of him with the scouting report."Your Excellency! The next five miles of path are clear of any human forces."

The Elite, in his crimson armor, eyed him then replied."Well done. Return to your forward position and keep me appraised."

"As you command Excellency."the Jackal bowed and sprinted back the way he had come.

Yigsa reviewed his mission objectives on his personal data pad. They read:

Primary Objective A: Secure Landing Zone.

Primary Objective B: Advance on Human position in the valley. Spare no one except human Field Master.

Primary Objective C: Secure all Forerunner Structures and Artifacts and signal for reenforcements.

Sounded easy enough to Yigsa. Yet something nagged at him. No mission personally assigned by the Prophets was easy. They had been enraged by the fact that a human force had arrived at the Forerunner site before any Covenant force had landed in the area. The Prophet of regret had insisted that the only way to remove this taint to the holy structures was to slaughter the entire human force. Though they had insisted the the human forces leader be taken alive so he could be questioned as too how much the UNSC had learned.

With another days march ahead of them Yigsa had awhile to formulate a battle plan.

**TO BE COTINUED...**


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

September 4th, 2551

Centauri Seven

0600 Hours

Fire Team Zulu had been marching for two hours and the sun was just starting to rise. Corpral Wallace checked his MA5B assault rifle and had Private Marshall take point. The squad edged toward a ridge and struggled to keep a cohesive formation as the fog continued to wreck havoc with their visibility.

They trudged slowly up the ridge and through the trees when their motion senors showed three contacts about one hundred an thirty meters ahead of them. Wallace motioned for a halt with his hand, and had the men rally in a firing line along the top of the ridge and wait for the contacts to come out into range. Suddenly Wallace's motion tracker read the three unidentified cotacts as friendlies. His Friend or Foe reciever read the soldiers ID beacons as a Major Stanford, a Sergeant Pastor, and a Private O'Connolly. The becons read all of them as membrs of units from Bravo Company.

Wallace spoke quietly into his helmets comm system."Are the rest of you recieving the same FoF readings I am?" He got nods from the soldiers next too him and acknoledgement signals from the rest.

Private Jenson was the first to ask what all of them were thinking,"What are a Major, a Sergean and Private all doing this far away from their camp together? Thats an odd assortment of ranks."

"Good point", Marshall cut in. "If their with the Company we're supposed too meet we should probably announce ourselves."

"True Marshall." Wallace replied.

Jenson cut in again, "Sir. Something just doesn't feel right about this. If this damn fog weren't here I would feel a lot better."

"Stop your bitching Jenson. Although I have to agree about one thing. Something doesn't feel right." Wallace said.

Corpral Wallace tapped the Marine next to him, a Private Sinclaire. He motioned for him to move forward and get a look at the contacts. He then radioed for everyone else to hold their position and wait for the scouts report. He watched as Sinclaires signal moved forward on his motion tracker and came within about 15 yards of the nearest contact. For a very few long minutes that felt like hours, none of the contacts moved. Then without warning the three green contacts moved forward and towards Sinclaires position. Wallace felt a lump build in his throat.

Suddenly Sinclaire reported over the comm."Sir I really can't see anything yet...", a short pause,"Wait I see sometihng coming out of the fog. It looks like an offic...What the fuck...What the hell is that..." he said with a voice of alarm. The sound of gunfire cut the Private off and then nothing but static came over the radio.

Before Wallace could respond automatic gunfire came at them and he heard some screams. He heard an MA5B fire in return."Fire at will!" he shouted and then tried to pick out where the hostile fire had come from. The three contacts were holding their position around Siclaires on the motion Scanner, but suddenly twenty new contacts appeared from nowhere at about two hundred yards out and began closing fast. Weapons fire erupted all around him and wallace thought he spotted a something moving about fifteen yards in front of him in the fog and he opened fire. He could have sworn he hit what ever it was but it fired back and Wallace was hit in the shoulder. What shocked him was that he had been hit by a bullet and not a plasma burn. He hit his team com frequency and shouted,"Fall back! Stay together!" He got a series of acknowledged clicks over the comm, and then he made a run for it.

Yigsa Solamee'e led his warriors out of the hills they had been marching through and into the rolling plains. The next few hours would be simple mop up work. He rode a Ghost down the last hill to where his scout Dak waited for him. As he rode the last stretch of land between the column of Grunts and Jackals, he came to where Dak was supposed to be, but just found a pool of violet blood. The Jackals shield was laying idlly on the ground next a rock, but his body and plasma pistol were missing.

The crimson armored Elite peered from left to right an all around the hills behind him. He pulled a scope from a compartment on his Ghost and looked all around the plains in front of him. There was nothing for as far as the eye could see. He pulled the comm from his belt radioed Lizzit the Grunt he had seen at the head of the column when he had passed it."Have the warriors stop, and send a contingent to my position." He got the customary 'affirmatives' from the worthless Grunt and awaited his backup to arrive.

Ten minutes passed before the help arrived. Five Grunts and three Jackals ran to where Yigsa waited."One of our scouts, a Jackal, is missing. Find him."

"Ofcourse your Excelleny!" one of the Jackals bowed. With that the group seperated and began to fan out over the area.

The Elite, content they could handle finding Dak, roared his Ghost to life rode it back to the main body of his force. He dismounted the craft and strode toward Lizzit and had the little Grunt whip the Covenant warriors into formation. the grunts lined up into two equal rows behind the line of Jackals, whou presented their shields forward and stood at full attention. The grunts tried not to let their nervousness show.

Yigsa marched in from og them and inspected the line formations with as much appreciation he could muster for these lesser species."Today we will be engaging the infidels on holy ground. the Prophets themselves are watching this mission. As are the gods! Fail in our objective, then we fail in our faith! Fail here, and the Great Journey will leave us behind as heritics!"

Before he could give them more of his lecture, his radio cut in."Your Excellency! We-"static cut in,"attack.Wielding human weapons but-"more static,"requesting reenforcements immeadately!"

'Damn!' Yigsa thought. He motioned for his warriors to move out, and left Lizzit in charge, as he jumped back onto his Ghost and sped back to where he had left his scouts. He raced up the hill and back into the boulders where he had last seen Daks' shield and found two Jackals and a wounded Grunt huddled against the rock looking almost in shock. Yigsa jumped off his vehicle and walked over too them and saw blood all over the ground around them, but absolutely no bodies. He picked one of the Jackals up and roared."What did this? Humans?!?"

The Jackal just shook and stuttered out"Nnnoo....they were demons!"


	3. Chapter Three

**September 4th, 2551 (Military Calendar)**

**Centauri Seven**

**1900 Hours**

Is it awake doc?"asked Sergeant Donald Casper.

"No. It suffered a severe gash to the shoulder. It'll recover in time but for now it better rest." Chief Petty Officer Drake replied. The Jackal on the exam table before them had several nasty wounds and was out cold."You never told me how you found it."

"We were been on patrol about twenty miles north of here. Our motion trackers picked up movement over a nearby hill. When we investigated we found this Covie being attacked by those things."Casper replied."What about our other patient?"

They both turned and stared at bolted titanium door on the wall behind them. Drake stood and walked too the door followed closely by Casper. The doctor stopped and stood infont of it and opened a view port on the security door. He pulled back the slide and looked into the tiny four-foot by four-foot room. Chained by it's arms in the middle of the room was horrid looking bi-pedal creature. It had clearly been human at one time, but was now something else entirely. It's skin had grown a sickly brown and thick tendrals began to grow from it's wrists. It's head had become mishapen and its neck craned slightly to it's right. As the visor slid open on the door it raised it's eyes and met the doctors gaze. Suddenly the creature sprang to it's feet and leaped at the door growling and screaming. The Doctor doctor sighed and slid the visor shut.

"No change?" Casper asked.

"None. He hasn't improved one bit." the doctor said and sighed again."At least I have-"

Drake was suddenly cut off has the Jackal on the table began too stir. Casper ran over to the bird like alien and leveled his MA5B assault rifle at the things head. The Jackal opened it's eyes and rolled it's head to the side and looked down the barrel of Caspers gun. Drake moved up beside him and motioned for him to put his gun down. The doctor kneeled beside the creature and asked, "Can you understand me?" The alien soldier was clearly nervous but hid it well. It stared at both of the humans and squaked something in its own tounge they couldn't understand.

The doctor looked at Casper and said, "Get the major."

Five minutes passed as the alien made more innane babble the doctor couldn't understand. When finally the the company's CO, Major Edwin Villa came in through the med bay doors Sergeant Casper marched closely behind him carrying a portable holographic display with him. They walked too the restrained Jackal, ans Casper put the holo-projector on the the doctors medical tool table and clicked it on. The image of a Japanese man in cerimonial robes standing with his hands behind his back.

The Villa looked at the AI's image and asked,"Majordomo. Translate what I say." The Majordomo nodded, and Villa turned his attention back to the captured alien."You are now a prisoner of the UNSC Marine Corps. You are in a medical detention center. When your wounds have suffiently healed, and been properly interrogated, you will be shipped to Prisoner of War facility. Until then you are in my jurisdiction and you will answer every question I or my men ask you. If you do not I will have you shot ." The Majordomo translated Villas words, and the Jackals eyes widened in fear, but that fear wasn't at the CO's words. It looked at the hologram and started jabbering in its species tongue. It seemed jumpy but unaffectd by the prescence of the Marines.

The Japanese AI turned an shook his head, "He doesn't seem to fully grasp his situation. He says his name is Dak. He requests permission to return to his Covenant unit and inform them of a new threat."

"Then this 'Dak' is truly crazy if he thinks I am going to let him go to report our position to his people." Villa said with an amount of amusement. "Tell him, I will not releas him, nor allow him to inform his men of our location!"

The AI repeated what the Major said, and listened to the aliens reply."He says you misunderstand. His unit is already aware of our prescence. That was supposed to be their mission objective. Apparently our camp is on some kind of Covenant holy ground. And his units orders were to remove our,'Species Taint', from this spot. Apparently this new threat is something not human, something he didn't expect to encounter." Majordomo paused and continued to listen. When the jackal finished, the AI continued,"I believe he is referring to thess strange mutations that have been probing our perimeters at night."

The Major tensed. They believed these creatures were a new Covenant bio-weapon, but it appeared that even the Covies were fighting these things now. "Ask him what he knows of these things. Ask him what the are?"

The AI queried Dak with the question, and listened intently to it's reply,"He says they are demons. Enemies of their 'gods'. He says we should leave this valley while we have the chance."

"Why?" asked Sergeant casper, still standing behind Major Villa.

"Because," the AI replied turning his attention towards Casper, "he claims our base is directly over these creatures lair. And they are coming too consume us."

Corpral Wallace finally made it too the fallback point, and was astonished at what he saw. Out of the ten men he had led towards Bravo Company's base, only four had survived the ambush. When they saw him walking up they stood too attention and saluted. He crisply returned the salute and walked back up to a nearby tree and leaned against it and dropped his pack and MA5B assault on the ground.

Behind him, Private Jenson asked."Sir. Permission to speak freely?"

Wallace tuirned,"Granted."

"What the fuck happened out there!?" Jenson snapped.

"I don't know. But we had our asses handed to us." Wallace replied.

"What next, sir?" Private Corwin asked.

Wallace looked at Corwin and smiled. This man had just been through hell, yet he was still somehow managing too keep his cool."We make our way too Bravo Base." He turned and picked his rifle back up, and put another clip into it and loaded a bullet into the chamber.

Corwin stammered a bit,"Sir. I don't think we can complete our mission."

That sentiment was joined by Jenson."We should focus on staying alive sir."

Wallace looked at Jeson and glared. "We are. Bravo Company is the nearest UNSC forces for three hundred miles. We are low on ammo and only have two days worth of rations. If we don't make it too Bravo Base, we're dead. So get some rest and regroup your nerves. We move back out in an hour and this time we're moving quickly and quietly."

"Sir. yes sir." The marines said in unison.


End file.
